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June 21, 2011

G73: Padres 5, Red Sox 4

Boston collected 13 hits, including two doubles and a triple, but missed many opportunities to score, going 3-for-13 with RATS and leaving 11 men on base.

The Red Sox, who had scored 10+ runs in five of their last nine games, lost for only the third time in 17 games. The Yankees/Reds game was rained out, so Boston now has a one-game lead in the East.

After getting two outs in the second inning, Aceves (5-4-4-6-4, 99) walked five straight hitters, forcing in two runs. At one point in the inning, the Padres saw 33 consecutive pitches without putting the ball in play. (The MLB record for most consecutive walks is seven, by Dolly Gray of the Senators, in the first game of a doubleheader against the White Sox, on August 28, 1909.)

Aceves also retired the first two batters in the third, but then gave up a double, single, stolen base, double to put the Sox in a 4-1 hole.

Boston chipped away. Josh Reddick tripled to start the third and scored on Jacoby Ellsbury's single. In the fourth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked, took second on Marco Scutaro's single, and scored on Reddick's double. Adrian Gonzalez knocked in Scutaro in the sixth to tie the game.

Dan Wheeler relieved Aceves and pitched a perfect sixth, but loaded the bases with one out in the seventh. Daniel Bard came in and got Anthony Rizzo to hit a weak infield grounder, but the tie-breaking run scored.

The Red Sox came up empty many times. Down by two runs in the third, Gonzalez batted with runners on first and second and no outs. He hit into an unusual 1-5-6 double play, reaching safely as the two lead runners were put out. After Kevin Youkilis singled, David Ortiz grounded out.

In the fourth, after Reddick's double had cut San Diego's lead to 4-3, Ellsbury batted with runners on second and third and one out. He struck out, Dustin Pedroia walked to load the bases, and Gonzalez struck out looking.

Salty batted with a man on third with two outs in the fifth and struck out. Also in that inning, Ortiz stole second base, his first steal since August 3, 2008, and the 11th of his career. Padres starter Latos (5.2-10-4-4-8, 120) was completely ignoring him, so Tiz took off. When Latos went into his windup, Ortiz slowed down, then turned it on again, and slid safely into second.

Youkilis ended the sixth with runners on first and second. In the seventh, J.D. Drew walked with one out and Salty singled, but Scutaro flied out and Reddick grounded out. In the bottom of the ninth, down by one run, Youkilis singled and Drew Sutton pinch-ran. With a chance to win the game, Ortiz hit into a 5-6-3 DP. And Drew struck out.

The announced attendance was 38,422, the largest regular season crowd since World War II. The previous record was 38,347 (May 21, 2009, against the Blue Jays).

[H]e hasn't felt good the last couple of days. He was going to go home and see if he felt better. The more we were thinking about it, before he got out of here, we said, "You know what? This is silly. If you're that sick, you're kind of worried about pitching tomorrow." I'm not sure how good he'd feel anyway. So we stayed away from Aceves [on Monday].

Latos set a major-league record last year of 15 consecutive starts of at least five innings pitched with two runs or fewer allowed. Mike Scott (1986) and Greg Maddux (1993-94) had streaks of 14 starts; Maddux also had a 13-game streak (1995). (Pedro Martinez's longest streak was 10 games.)

I would have thought a Deadball Era pitcher had a string of more than 15 such starts -- the BRef data goes back only to the start of the 1919 season -- but this ESPN sidebar says Latos, Scott, and Maddux are the top three on the list since 1900.

In 2011, Latos has received very poor run support; the Padres have scored three or fewer runs in nine of his 13 starts.

141 comments:

ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk had no idea teams play 18 interleague games per year:

"I didn't realize it was that many, to be honest with you, because they play some and then they go back to American League teams are playing American League teams. Then, two or three weeks later, you go back to interleague. So I didn't realize it was 18 games."

Again, NESN obsessed with showing runner touching home so we miss the play at second. As soon as we saw the guy trotting home while looking back, we knew he was in, now switch to what else is going on.

I want a haggard, red-nosed Beckett to come running to the mound in his pajamas and shove Aceves to the ground and pick up the ball. When Francona comes to take him away, I want Beckett to cold cock him. The umps will be so overwhelmed by the awesomeness they won't do anything.